The coronavirus – experts with many different perspectives
Linnaeus University has compiled a list of contacts with researchers who can comment on the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and covid-19 from different perspectives. New experts and areas of expertise will be added to the list continuously.
Note that the researchers on the list may not always be available. If you are having trouble reaching the person you would like to get in touch with via phone, try sending an email instead.
Business and economics
Financial consequences of the corona crisis
Hubert Fromlet’s field of research is international business, with focus on Germany and the larger Asian economies, like, for instance, China and India. Among other things, he runs the blog China Research, a discussion forum on growth markets, primarily China, from macro, micro, institutional, and business perspective. The latest post deals with the coronavirus and its effects on the economy, primarily in China. He also senior adviser to the German-Swedish Chamber of Commerce, where he regularly comments on the financial impact on the coronavirus.
Contact
Hubert Fromlet, affiliated professor of economics, +4670-768 49 92, hubert.fromlet@gmail.com
The short- and long-term effects on companies are not obvious but significant. The surrounding world is changing rapidly and so is the competition. Companies are knocked out and forced to make strategic reprioritisations. Organisation, management acounting, and management will most likely be affected. Companies that manage to survive may become relatively better equipped in the competition after the crisis than they were before the crisis. Contingency and emergency planning will become more important. Strategies concerning choice of sales and distribution channels, as well as risks and opportunities that come with extended supply chains will, most likely, be questioned and discussed to a greater extent in the future.
Contact
Fredrik Karlsson, doctor of philosophy in business and economics and senior lecturer at the School of Business and Economics, +4670-605 78 31, fredrik.karlsson@lnu.se
Lars Behrenz works as both economist and adviser to the vice-chancellor. In his research, Behrenz focuses on labour market economics. He has, among other things, studied a number of different types of analyses of labour market policies. The development of and effects on the labour market depending on different types of policy measures and various types of events in the world, like, for instance, financial crises, wars, and pandemics.
Contact
Lars Behrenz, associate professor and adviser to the vice-chancellor, +4672-216 51 08, lars.behrenz@lnu.se
Health and life sciences
Family care in corona times
What does the coronavirus mean for people who provide care, help, and support to a parent, partner, child, or other next of kin? What happens if I, as next of kin, become infected with the coronavirus? How can I provide support to a close relative who has covid-19? How do children who are next of kin cope? They are already in a vulnerable situation. What happens when schools are closed and people who belong to the risk group are urged to stay at home?
Contact
Elizabeth Hansson, professor of caring sciences, R&D manager at The Swedish Family Care Competence Centre, +4670-361 48 46, elizabeth.hansson@lnu.se
Lennart Magnusson, associate professor and operational manager at The Swedish Family Care Competence Centre, +4670-630 23 21, lennart.magnusson@lnu.se
Resilient health care systems, patient safety, quality of life of elderly, and eHealth
What resilience, knowledge, and strategies do our health and caring systems have to handle covid-19 from a patient safety perspective? How does staff adapt their resources to maintain the quality of care and safety, with focus on elderly patients with complex care needs and their next of kin at individual homes and retirement homes? How can coordinated care with eHealth, home monitoring, and long-distance care be scaled up and, with maintained safety, contribute to an active management of self-care and safety for the elderly person as well as job satisfaction for the staff?
Contact
Mirjam Ekstedt, professor of caring sciences, +46480-44 63 99, mirjam.ekstedt@lnu.se
Long-distance care and risks with isolation
Cecilia Fagerström’s research deals with, among other things, how we can improve quality of life for elderly with complex health problems by using eHealth and structured caring processes, in particular based on person-centered care and research on well-being. Increased value of digital channels and long-distance care within health care and care in connection to physical meetings being reduced in order to limit the spread of the virus. Risk of increased sedentary lifestyle and poorer health among elderly as a result if isolation in order to limit the spread of infection.
Contact
Cecilia Fagerström, professor of caring sciences, +46470-76 78 86, cecilia.fagerstrom@lnu.se
How can we guarantee good palliative care for critically ill and dying patients who are infected with covid-19?
Palliative care is provided to patients with life-threatening diseases, regardless of age, diagnosis, and caring form. Focus is on mitigating symptoms, quality of life, and to give patients and their next of kin support and opportunity to participate. Will we be able to guarantee good palliative care to everyone who is infected with the coronavirus and to those who will die – considering the risk of infection, ban on visits from next of kin, lack of resources, and so on?
Contact
Anna Sandgren, associate professor of caring sciences, scientific manager for Centre for Collaborative Palliative Care, +4670-313 12 36, anna.sandgren@lnu.se
Arts and humanities
The coronavirus’s impact on Swedish culture
How is our consumption of culture affected by the coronavirus? Will we, for instance, see more digital concerts and events? How are cultural actors’ operations affected (for instance, artists, musicians, museums, art galleries)? How will they manage to survive?
Contact
Linda Fagerström, associate professor of art history, +4673-981 96 90, linda.fagerstrom@lnu.se
The significance of language in authorities’ crisis communication
What role does language play in public communication between authorities and citizens in a time of crisis? Claes Ohlsson conducts research on language use in organisations with a special interest in how authorities and companies choose to communicate.
Contact
Claes Ohlsson, associate professor of Swedish, +46470-76 78 80, claes.ohlsson@lnu.se
How social orders are questioned in the narrative of the pandemic
Johan Höglund has written a lot about pandemics and microorganisms in film and literature. In his research, he studies how current social orders are questioned and upended in the narrative of the pandemic. Examples of Höglund’s research: https://journals.openedition.org/transtexts/706
Contact
Johan Höglund, professor of English literature, +4673-036 09 59, johan.hoglund@lnu.se
How do we handle death, and the feeling of a threat of mass death?
Death is a universal human experience that often creates concern and a sense of losing control. This is something that people from different cultures handle through different strategies. Liv Nilsson Stutz has conducted extensive research on how we humans face death and how our strategies interplay with cultural and social values. How we handle death, as individuals and communities, tells us a lot about how we view life, Nilsson Stutz means.
Contact
Liv Nilsson Stutz, senior lecturer in archaeology, +4670-969 10 88, liv.nilssonstutz@lnu.se
Mathematics
Mathematical models and how we can understand the spread of infection
On the significance of the different parameters: contact speed, how many people become infected in a population by each infected individual, how many will get the disease, the significance of different types of measures, will the spread of infection stop, will this pass, the significance of structuring the population into different risk categories.
Contact
Torsten Lindström, professor of mathematics, +46470-70 81 74, torsten.lindstrom@lnu.se
Pedagogy and web-based learning
What a closedown of school may bring with it
What happens to pupils’ learning when everything is switched over to web-based teaching? What happens to the pupils who are in need of special support? How can pupils’ knowledge be guaranteed via web-based teaching? What happens if nine-year compulsory school shuts down completely?
Contact
Tobias Bromander, senior lecturer at the Department of Pedagogy and Learning, +4673-073 00 86, tobias.bromander@lnu.se
Pedagogy with focus on web-based learning processes
Italo Masiello works on a research programme that aims to support learning and teaching that is mediated through digital technology. Interesting areas that are linked to this strategic investment is knowledge creation, social media in education, computer analysis in learning, mobile learning, and the digital competence of teachers. With a research background within medical pedagogy, Masiello makes use of his knowledge in psychology, neuroscience, and computer science to understand the potential that digital technology can contribute with to teaching, learning, behaviour, and communication.
Contact
Italo Masiello, professor of pedagogy (works from Stockholm), +46470-70 82 03, italo.masiello@lnu.se
Children’s learning in digital worlds
Marina Wernholm is a doctoral student who conducts research within the field of children’s experiences of participation and learning in digital games. Wernholm also teaches on the early years education programme, the primary teacher programme with specialisation in extended school teaching, F-3 and 4-6, as well as on the special teacher programme and the special education programme. She lectures and hold workshops on how digital tools and digital learning resources can be used to promote pupils’ knowledge representation and their development of adequate digital competence.
Contact
Marina Wernholm, doctoral student in pedagogy, +4672-594 95 01, marina.wernholm@lnu.se
Web-based learning
Tor Ahlbäck teaches primarily on the primary teacher programme, partly on the specialisation early years education and F 1-3 and partly on the specialisation F 4-6. In 2018, Ahlbäck defended his doctoral thesis “Digitala skrivtavlor – till vad, hur och varför? En studie om den digitala skrivtavlans betydelse för grundskolans digitalisering utifrån ett lärandeperspektiv”. In his doctoral thesis, four different conclusions are discussed concerning the conditions of the digitisation of school: Create a school culture in which the teaching conducted by teachers is the starting point for the digitisation of school. Give teachers clearer instructions to integrate digital technology in their teaching. Create a local ICT strategy from classroom level to administrative level. Develop IT support based on the needs of the teachers.
Contact
Tor Ahlbäck, senior lecturer, +46470-70 82 60, tor.ahlback@lnu.se
Psychiatry
Anxiety disorders and trauma
Ina Marteinsdottir has been active within clinical psychiatry for many years. She has carried out research on anxiety and connections between trauma and psychiatric conditions.
Contact
Ina Marteinsdottir, professor of psychiatry, +46480-44 63 62, ina.marteinsdottir@lnu.se
Social sciences
Political consequences of the corona crisis
How do crises affect party sympathies and our trust in politicians? Magnus Hagevi’s research focuses on political behaviour, parties, parliament, and sociology of religion, with a special interest in Swedish politics and comparative politics.
Contact
Magnus Hagevi, professor of political science, +46470-70 80 22, magnus.hagevi@lnu.se
Narratives and misinformation about corona in online forums
Based on research on extreme online forums, Emma Ricknell can comment on misinformation and the different ongoing narratives that exist online about the coronavirus.
Contact
Emma Ricknell, doctoral student in political science, +46470-70 84 29, emma.ricknell@lnu.se
The corona outbreak’s impact on asylum-seeking youth
Torun Elsrud conducts research on the experiences of asylum-seeking youth in Sweden. Through her work, Elsrud has gained an insight into the stress these youth have experienced for a long time, which now risks becoming even worse. The outbreak of the corona pandemic may come to affect the handling of deportations and custody, further fleeing, and their opportunity to meet the requirements of study results and work in accordance with the new gymnasielagen [upper secondary school law].
Contact
Torun Elsrud, associate professor of sociology, +46480-44 61 10, torun.elsrud@lnu.se
Peace and development studies
Susanne Alldén’s research focuses on different aspects of conflict management and peacebuilding in conflict-torn contexts, with focus on Africa’s great lake region and on the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular. What potential effects can the coronavirus have on international aid, the development in sub-Saharan countries, and humanitarian aid? How will fragile nation states, equality and the struggle for women’s rights be affected in low-income countries?
Contact
Susanne Alldén, senior lecturer, +46470-76 75 13, susanne.allden@lnu.se
Labour market policy and financial support in relation to our welfare systems
Rickard Ulmestig’s research deals with welfare and social security benefits, the role of municipalities in labour market policy, poverty, and how our welfare systems work for people who are self-employed.
Contact
Rickard Ulmestig, associate professor of social work, +4676-201 58 86, rickard.ulmestig@lnu.se
Over-indebtedness, debt reconstruction, and financial difficulties
In her research, Lisbeth Sandvall studies ways in and out of financial difficulties based on qualitative interviews where many of the interviewees’ debts were related to the financial crisis in the 1990s. At that time, many people were hit by structural mechanisms, in the same way we are experiencing now as a result of the spread of the coronavirus, and different approaches and strategies could have an impact on how the situation was handled. But also consequences regarding, for instance, physical and mental health, relationships, and addiction.
Social work
Risk of increased violence in close relationships
In vulnerable families, a setback in the economy, that a child stays home from school, and that adults are laid off, constitute increased risk of stress and ill health. In families where violence in close relationships or violence towards children occur, it becomes an extreme situation when you are required to spend a lot of time together.
Contact, violence towards children and risk factors
Johanna Thulin, senior lecturer in social work, +46470-70 87 34, johanna.thulin@lnu.se
Contact, violence in close relationships
Lotta Agevall Gross, senior lecturer in social work, +46470-70 83 12, lotta.agevall-gross@lnu.se
Violence in close relationships and global health
Marie Eriksson conducts interdisciplinary research on gender and class and other power relations/power asymmetries – both in the past and in our time. The consequences of the quarantine for women who already live with men’s violence in close relationships, under exercise of power, control, and isolation. What is this situation like for them? And what happens to them next? As the financial crisis, dismissals, unemployment etc. deteriorate, it becomes more difficult to leave a violent relationship.
Contact
Marie Eriksson, historian and senior lecturer in social work, +46470-70 80 56, marie.eriksson@lnu.se
Authorities’ communication with different target groups and language groups
Kristina Gustafsson’s research deals with interpretation in the public sector, communication and meetings between employees in the public sector and individuals who do not speak Swedish. In the current situation, communication and information to inhabitants in Sweden is of major importance, as is access to information channels in the more than 200 languages that are spoken in Sweden today. How do Swedish authorities reach different target groups and language groups and where, in turn, can these groups turn to get information?
Contact
Kristina Gustafsson, associate professor of social work, +4670-90 83 27, kristina.gustafsson@lnu.se
Virus and spread of infection
What are diseases? How do they come into existence? How do they evolve and how are they transmitted?
Jonas Waldenström conducts research on animal-borne diseases, primarily influenza viruses. In Waldenström’s research group, bird-borne diseases are often used as model systems, in particular zoonotic diseases, which can also infect humans and/or our domestic animals.
Contact
Jonas Waldenström, professor of microbiology with specialisation in the ecology of diseases, +4670-201 82 18, jonas.waldenstrom@lnu.se
How viruses interact with the infected cell
Michael Lindberg has broad knowledge within the field of virology. He leads a research group that studies how viruses form the Picornavirus family interact with the infected cell. In his research, he strives to use an evolutionary biology approach. Within virology, Lindberg has special expertise in so-called fundamental virology, including coronaviruses, diagnostics, vaccines, and antivirals, as well as pathways of transmission of viruses. Lindberg has developed teaching in the subject virology both locally and nationally.
Contact
Michael Lindberg, professor of virology, +46480-44 62 40, michael.lindberg@lnu.se